Using ontologies for domain information retrieval

The main objective of domain engineering is to provide domain information that helps the specification of domain applications. Some applications need to reuse information from multiple domains. Currently, there are several Domain Engineering methods that provide domain information using different representations that are stored in various formats. Due to the costs involved in a domain engineering initiative, it is important to be able to access all available domain information. This paper describes a retrieval agent system that provides access to information from multiple domains, regardless of its heterogeneity or distribution. Domain ontologies and an evolutionary model of the user's interests are some of the basic concepts used by the system to help users identify and retrieve relevant domain information.